Darin St. George: Don't skip breakfast

Every so often, I end up meeting someone who is an absolute riot, works hard and ends up teaching me something. This man is The Nutty Professor.

Darin St. George

I love my job. Well, it isn't really that I love my "job" so much as I have fun doing what I do, and I'm fortunate enough to get paid for it.

Every so often, I end up meeting someone who is an absolute riot, works hard and ends up teaching me something. This man is The Nutty Professor.

We've all seen the movie: Jerry Lewis plays a man who can't get out of his own way by day, and he creates a magic concoction to turn himself into the debonair "Buddy Love" by night. While my friend Tommy G. is hardly suave, he is a professor, and he wants me to write about our conversation.

"Well, if you've been doing your cardio as you say and have been eating properly, how has your body changed?"

The teeth spring into action, the jaws of my conversational bear trap clutch Tom's mind like the jaws of a pit bull.

Tom sheepishly looks at me (now he gets suave!) and he starts to tell me about the tale of woe that is his actual eating program. Let's look at what Tom actually did and what you can do to avoid an upswing in your waistline and on your scale:

"I skipped breakfast."

Oh, Tommy, my poor fellow. Do I need to come over every morning and fix you a bowl of woofies? You mean to tell me that you slept all night, woke up and did a vigorous 30-minute cardio workout (red herring alert!), and aren't dying for some oatmeal and fruit or a delicious egg white omelet with low-fat cheese?

Well, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Skip it and you rob your body of the necessary protein to maintain and build muscle - so put on your bib and have some breakfast.

"So, then I had a couple of handfuls of candy."

Am I on "Candid Camera"? Is this some kind of a prank? My dear reader, after a skipped breakfast, your body is in starvation mode; it is getting rid of muscle and holding onto stored body fat because it thinks that you are starving. Is THAT your intended goal?

Make a concerted effort to eat a meal slightly smaller than breakfast, but make sure that it (with a piece of fruit around 3 p.m.) can tide you over until dinner.

"When I got home, I was starving!"

This is the Danger Zone that Kenny Loggins didn't sing about. If you walk into your comfort zone seeking comfort foods - bingo! You're on your way to eating all the food, the plate and the table underneath it! This could all be avoided if you went back and started with a great breakfast and followed through all day long.

Tommy, I will give you the same advice I give everyone: Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper.

Darin St. George is a personal fitness coach at Gold's Gym in Natick, Mass. Visit his Web site at www.myspace.com/darinstgeorge.

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